Research Summary

Dr. Yan Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. Dr. Li received her medical degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, Master of Science in Biochemistry from McGill University in Canada, and Ph.D. from the UCSF/UC Berkeley Joint Graduate Program in Bioengineering.

Dr. Yan Li’s research focuses on developing methods for obtaining reliable metabolic information from the brain to characterize spatial and temporal heterogeneity and the biological behavior during disease time for brain tumors, psychiatric and neurologic diseases. This includes the development of new methods for obtaining whole-brain metabolites and tools for generating metrics of brain neurotransmitters using 3T and 7T MR scanners, implementation of statistical methods to relate metabolic metrics to clinical outcome or measures, and integrating steady-state 1H metabolic imaging with PET, hyperpolarized 13C and advanced MR imaging parameters in order to elucidate the underlying normal and abnormal biological process.

Research Funding

  • September 9, 2022 - August 31, 2027 - Multimodality Neuroimaging Evaluation of Cognitive Functioning in Lower Grade Astrocytoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA273028
  • March 8, 2022 - February 28, 2027 - Quantitative Steady-State and Dynamic Metabolic MRI for Evaluating Patients with Glioma , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA262630
  • September 15, 2022 - September 14, 2026 - Multimodal Neuroimaging for Evaluating Lower-Grade Astrocytoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Department of Defense USAMRAA, Sponsor Award ID: W81XWH-22-1-0884
  • August 2, 2021 - May 31, 2026 - Neural mechanisms of speech motor control in Autism Spectrum Disorders , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01DC019167

Education

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, MD/BM, 08/2002, Clinical Medicine
McGill University, QC, Canada, MS, 10/2004, Biochemistry
UC Berkeley/UCSF, CA, USA, PhD, 06/2008, Bioengineer

Honors & Awards

  • 2002-2003
    Graduate Studies Fellowship, McGill
  • 2004-2005
    Graduate Dean Fellowship, UCSF
  • 2007
    Graduate Student Research Award, UCSF
  • 2007-2008
    Krevans Graduate Research Fellowship, UCSF
    • 2008
    Margaret Heart Surbeck Scholar Award, UCSF

Selected Publications

  1. Avalos LN, Luks TL, Gleason T, Damasceno P, Li Y, Lupo JM, Phillips J, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, Chang SM, Villanueva-Meyer JE. Longitudinal MR spectroscopy to detect progression in patients with lower-grade glioma in the surveillance phase. Neurooncol Adv. 2022 Jan-Dec; 4(1):vdac175.  View on PubMed
  2. Vaziri S, Autry AW, Lafontaine M, Kim Y, Gordon JW, Chen HY, Hu JY, Lupo JM, Chang SM, Clarke JL, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Bush NAO, Xu D, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Li Y. Assessment of higher-order singular value decomposition denoising methods on dynamic hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate MRI data from patients with glioma. Neuroimage Clin. 2022 Aug 17; 36:103155.  View on PubMed
  3. Autry AW, Lafontaine M, Jalbert L, Phillips E, Phillips JJ, Villanueva-Meyer J, Berger MS, Chang SM, Li Y. Spectroscopic imaging of D-2-hydroxyglutarate and other metabolites in pre-surgical patients with IDH-mutant lower-grade gliomas. J Neurooncol. 2022 Aug; 159(1):43-52.  View on PubMed
  4. Li Y, Vigneron DB, Xu D. Current human brain applications and challenges of dynamic hyperpolarized carbon-13 labeled pyruvate MR metabolic imaging. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2021 12; 48(13):4225-4235.  View on PubMed
  5. Kim Y, Chen HY, Autry AW, Villanueva-Meyer J, Chang SM, Li Y, Larson PEZ, Brender JR, Krishna MC, Xu D, Vigneron DB, Gordon JW. Denoising of hyperpolarized 13 C MR images of the human brain using patch-based higher-order singular value decomposition. Magn Reson Med. 2021 11; 86(5):2497-2511.  View on PubMed
  6. Autry AW, Park I, Kline C, Chen HY, Gordon JW, Raber S, Hoffman C, Kim Y, Okamoto K, Vigneron DB, Lupo JM, Prados M, Li Y, Xu D, Mueller S. Pilot Study of Hyperpolarized 13C Metabolic Imaging in Pediatric Patients with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma and Other CNS Cancers. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2021 01; 42(1):178-184.  View on PubMed
  7. Gordon JW, Autry AW, Tang S, Graham JY, Bok RA, Zhu X, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Li Y, Ohilger MA, Abraham MR, Xu D, Vigneron DB, Larson PEZ. A variable resolution approach for improved acquisition of hyperpolarized 13 C metabolic MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2020 12; 84(6):2943-2952.  View on PubMed
  8. Autry AW, Gordon JW, Chen HY, LaFontaine M, Bok R, Van Criekinge M, Slater JB, Carvajal L, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Chang SM, Clarke JL, Lupo JM, Xu D, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Li Y. Characterization of serial hyperpolarized 13C metabolic imaging in patients with glioma. Neuroimage Clin. 2020; 27:102323.  View on PubMed
  9. Chen HY, Autry AW, Brender JR, Kishimoto S, Krishna MC, Vareth M, Bok RA, Reed GD, Carvajal L, Gordon JW, van Criekinge M, Korenchan DE, Chen AP, Xu D, Li Y, Chang SM, Kurhanewicz J, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB. Tensor image enhancement and optimal multichannel receiver combination analyses for human hyperpolarized 13 C MRSI. Magn Reson Med. 2020 12; 84(6):3351-3365.  View on PubMed
  10. Crane JC, Gordon JW, Chen HY, Autry AW, Li Y, Olson MP, Kurhanewicz J, Vigneron DB, Larson PEZ, Xu D. Hyperpolarized 13 C MRI data acquisition and analysis in prostate and brain at University of California, San Francisco. NMR Biomed. 2021 05; 34(5):e4280.  View on PubMed
  11. Pavithra Viswanath, Yan Li, Sabrina M. Ronen. C-13 Hyperpolarized MR Spectroscopy for Metabolic Imaging of Brain Tumors. . 2020 Jan 1; 191-209.  View on PubMed
  12. Chung BT, Chen HY, Gordon J, Mammoli D, Sriram R, Autry AW, Le Page LM, Chaumeil MM, Shin P, Slater J, Tan CT, Suszczynski C, Chang S, Li Y, Bok RA, Ronen SM, Larson PEZ, Kurhanewicz J, Vigneron DB. First hyperpolarized [2-13C]pyruvate MR studies of human brain metabolism. J Magn Reson. 2019 12; 309:106617.  View on PubMed
  13. Mammoli D, Gordon J, Autry A, Larson PEZ, Li Y, Chen HY, Chung B, Shin P, Van Criekinge M, Carvajal L, Slater JB, Bok R, Crane J, Xu D, Chang S, Vigneron DB. Kinetic Modeling of Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 Pyruvate Metabolism in the Human Brain. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2020 02; 39(2):320-327.  View on PubMed
  14. Autry AW, Gordon JW, Carvajal L, Mareyam A, Chen HY, Park I, Mammoli D, Vareth M, Chang SM, Wald LL, Xu D, Vigneron DB, Nelson SJ, Li Y. Comparison between 8- and 32-channel phased-array receive coils for in vivo hyperpolarized 13 C imaging of the human brain. Magn Reson Med. 2019 08; 82(2):833-841.  View on PubMed
  15. Zhu Z, Zhu X, Ohliger MA, Tang S, Cao P, Carvajal L, Autry AW, Li Y, Kurhanewicz J, Chang S, Aggarwal R, Munster P, Xu D, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB, Gordon JW. Coil combination methods for multi-channel hyperpolarized 13C imaging data from human studies. J Magn Reson. 2019 04; 301:73-79.  View on PubMed
  16. Behr SC, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Li Y, Wang YH, Wei J, Moroz A, Lee JK, Hsiao JC, Gao KT, Ma W, Cha S, Wilson DM, Seo Y, Nelson SJ, Chang SM, Evans MJ. Targeting iron metabolism in high-grade glioma with 68Ga-citrate PET/MR. JCI Insight. 2018 11 02; 3(21).  View on PubMed
  17. Gordon JW, Chen HY, Autry A, Park I, Van Criekinge M, Mammoli D, Milshteyn E, Bok R, Xu D, Li Y, Aggarwal R, Chang S, Slater JB, Ferrone M, Nelson S, Kurhanewicz J, Larson PEZ, Vigneron DB. Translation of Carbon-13 EPI for hyperpolarized MR molecular imaging of prostate and brain cancer patients. Magn Reson Med. 2019 04; 81(4):2702-2709.  View on PubMed
  18. Yan Li and Sarah J. Nelson. Quantitative MRI of the Brain: Principles of Physical Measurement (by Mara Cercignani, Nicholas G. Dowell, Paul S. Tofts). Chapter 12: 1H Spectroscopy of the Brain. 2018.  View on PubMed
  19. Li Y, Bian W, Larson P, Crane JC, Parvathaneni P, Nagarajan S, Nelson SJ. Reliable and Reproducible GABA Measurements Using Automated Spectral Prescription at Ultra-High Field. Front Hum Neurosci. 2017; 11:506.  View on PubMed
  20. Li Y, Lafontaine M, Chang S, Nelson SJ. Comparison between Short and Long Echo Time Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging at 3T and 7T for Evaluating Brain Metabolites in Patients with Glioma. ACS Chem Neurosci. 2018 01 17; 9(1):130-137.  View on PubMed

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